Provyn Prep · Python competency
Concurrency & async in the Python assessment
Concurrency & async is one of the areas a Provyn Python credential scores separately, so a recruiter can see it on its own rather than averaged into one number. This guide explains what it covers, how it is tested and what to practice.
What it covers
Generators, context managers, threads, processes and asyncio, and which one fits an I/O-bound or CPU-bound job.
Topics in the practice set for this area
- generators
- concurrency
- context managers
How it is tested
In the timed assessment, questions in this area use these formats: code you write, multiple choice. Each attempt draws its own set of questions, and this area gets its own sub-score on the credential when the attempt includes enough questions from it. The assessment questions themselves are never published; the practice set below is written separately for study.
What to practice
- Write a generator that streams a large file line by line.
- Implement a context manager both as a class and with contextlib.
- Explain the effect of the GIL on threads doing CPU work versus waiting on the network.
Try a practice question
From the free practice set (3 questions in this area). Answers and explanations are in the practice set.
- Generators differ from regular functions by:
- GIL stands for:
- Which is a valid context manager pattern?
Practice before the real thing
Both are free and use practice questions only, never questions from the real assessment.
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Last reviewed 2026-10-06.